Manufacturing of integrated circuits includes deposition of various materials onto patterned substrates such as silicon wafers. These materials include metal and metal-containing layers, for example diffusion barriers/liners to prevent diffusion of copper (Cu) conducting layers into dielectric materials and seed layers to promote adhesion and growth of the Cu layers onto the substrate. As the minimum feature sizes of patterned substrates continue to shrink, deposition processes are required that can provide advanced layers onto high-aspect ratio structures at sufficiently low temperatures.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has seen increasing use for preparation of coatings and thin layers in semiconductor wafer processing. CVD is a favored deposition method in many respects, for example, because of its ability to provide highly conformal and high quality layers at relatively fast processing times. Further, CVD is beneficial in depositing layers on substrates of irregular shapes including the provision of highly conformal layers even with respect to deep contacts and other openings. In general, CVD techniques involve the delivery of gaseous precursors (reactants) to the surface of a substrate where chemical reactions take place under temperature and pressure conditions that are favorable to the thermodynamics of the desired reaction. The type and composition of layers that can be formed using CVD can be affected by the ability to deliver the reactants or reactant precursors to the surface of the substrate.
In order for the device manufacturing process to be practical, the deposition processes need to be carried out in a reasonable amount of time. This requirement can necessitate efficient delivery of a precursor containing a metal element from a metal precursor vaporization system to a process chamber containing the substrate(s) to be processed. A common problem encountered in the deposition of metals and metal-containing materials by CVD techniques are low deposition rates onto a substrate due to low vapor pressure of the metal-containing precursor and the transport issues associated therewith, thereby making the deposition process impractical. A low vapor pressure can limit the flow of the metal-containing precursor from the metal precursor vaporization system through gas lines to a process chamber of a deposition system where a substrate is exposed to the metal-containing precursor.
The delivery of metal-containing precursors in CVD processing can be carried out using the sublimator/bubbler method where the precursor is usually placed in a metal precursor vaporization system which is then heated to transform the precursor into a gaseous compound (vapor) which is then transported into the process chamber, often using a carrier gas. However, this procedure has not been able to reliably and reproducibly deliver the precursor to the process chamber for a number of reasons. The major problems with the technique are centered on the inability to consistently vaporize a solid precursor at a controlled rate such that a reproducible flow of precursor vapor can be delivered to the process chamber. Also it is difficult to ensure complete saturation of the fast moving carrier gas stream because of the limited amount of exposed surface area of the solid precursor in the metal precursor vaporization system and a lack of uniform temperature to provide maximum sublimation/evaporation. In addition, the temperature to which the solid precursor can be heated to provide adequate vapor pressure can be limited by premature decomposition of the precursor at that temperature. Decomposition or partial reaction of the solid precursor in the metal precursor vaporization system can further complicate the precursor delivery due to low or negligible vapor pressure of the partially reacted precursor compared to the un-reacted (fresh) precursor. In addition, a partially reacted precursor can increase the number of detrimental precursor particles that are transferred to the process chamber and can accumulate on the substrate.
Thus, the presence of partially reacted precursor and un-reacted precursor can prevent reproducible flow of precursor vapor to the process chamber and therefore require refurbishing of the precursor. The refurbishing can include separating the un-reacted precursor from the partially reacted precursor, followed by further use of the un-reacted precursor in the deposition system and recycling of the partially reacted precursor to form a fresh batch of precursor. Current separation methods can involve dissolving the un-reacted precursor using a liquid solvent (e.g., acetone, toluene, etc) and filtering the un-dissolved partially reacted precursor from the solvent. This method commonly require long process times and large amounts of the solvent due to low solubility of the un-reacted precursor in the solvent.